Quote:
Originally Posted by Jurgenfd
Join me for major sailing, site seeing & diving experiences around the North Atlantic.
I like to invite you for your good company and sailing experience. Your humor and positive outlook on life will maintain the pleasant atmosphere on board. I am always honest and hard working when needed and I expect the same of you. Chores will be dived equally.
I have made major improvements to the yacht last year. For next year, I am planning a trip of one year North Atlantic.
We will leave around September 1, 2015 and come back after a year. The below itinerary is with absolutely no level of commitment as I need to research it more and am open for suggestions.
Netherlands
Portugal
Morocco
Canaries
Cape Verde
Suriname (Xmas flight back to the NLs)
Grenada
Aruba, Curacao, & Bonaire
Grenada
Tobago Cays
St Vincent & Grenadines
St Lucia
St Maarten
Bermuda
Azores
Portugal
Netherlands
I am in the last phases of installing the following purchased items: radar, AIS, dive compressor, solar panel, wind generator, ham radio, additional set of main sail and genua, spray hood, and diesel heater. Some of these items will be installed along the way.
Improvements that are completely done: wind vane and electrical steering, standing rigging replacement and insulation for use by ham radio grabbing weather reports. Also done: underwater ship repairs and antifouling, all teak replaced, all acryl windows replaced, ‘energy frame’ installed, life boat serviced, small engine for dinghy bought, all outside nav lights and interiors replaced by LEDs. Installed new shore power inverter and a new 230 V invertor (500 W) for charging our devices. New VHF transceivers (3x). Added 2 electrical pumps, 90 meters SS anchor chain and one PLB ACR ResQLink.
I prefer to sail with at least one and no more than two other sailors. My wife prefers me to stick with male crew so sorry for all the ladies. As skipper I am only started to sail the open oceans and I hope to learn from you if applicable. As a person, I am open minded, persistent, and love a good joke! As a teacher (4 years on the J24s in Madison, WI, USA) I give students room to learn but can be critical where needed. I think I am on the clean side with house keeping. My focus is on safety for these are dangerous endeavors. I want to be as environmentally responsible as possible but our boat does not have all provisions made for it yet. I like to learn by reading and then persist in doing until I get it; and I frequently do ;-)
Boiler plate questions I have for you:
- What are your 3 strongest points?
- What are your 3 points you need to work on?
- Do you think we match socially?
- We will share running costs such as food, drink, fuel and harbor equally. This can easily add up to € 25 bucks a day per person. I expect to spend 10 grant on the grand tour on those items. We all pay our own travel and onshore costs. In addition, a €10 per person per day contribution for insurance, write off, maintenance and repairs is asked in advance. Are you ok with that?
- Are you ok with helping me finish the rebuild of the boat for some of the above TODO list and new stuff that comes up?
- What time frame of at least 3 weeks would interest you?
- Can we meet before sailing?
- Do you like to go SCUBA diving? We have our own air compressor so we can dive beautiful reefs. |
Hello Jurgen.
What follows is written in a friendly tone of voice, with the intent to help with a different POV. My questions are simply to clarify the matter of discussion.
First, I appreciate that you wrote a very detailed description of your boat and plans and
equipment on your boat. That is rare to see here on this forum focused on crew opportunities. So, you did good there!
I also like that you wrote something about your own personality, the fact that your wife prefers you to have male crew, and something about your own experience (or lack of) sailing. That is another thing that is seldom seen here on posts like your
crew wanted notice.
But…
There are a few things I think should be brought up. This is where I might sound a little critical, but I am merely trying to help you and others who may want to crew for you. In fact, I am suggesting that you should make some modifications to your plan, and I believe if you do, you will be safer, your crew and you will be happier (and your wife too), and you will have a better
cruise.
Here are my suggestions:
1. AVOID the Hurricane Season for the North Atlantic:
"The official
hurricane season for the Atlantic Basin (the
Atlantic Ocean, the
Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico) is from 1 June to 30 November. The peak of the season is from mid-August to late October. However, deadly hurricanes can occur anytime in the hurricane season."
Consequently, I think it is NOT a good idea to begin your transatlantic voyage during Hurricane season, and this is especially true since you do NOT have much
offshore sailing experience AND because you are possibly going to attract
newbie or inexperienced crew to join you.
My Suggestion: Modify your plan and cross to the
Caribbean AFTER Hurricane season is over.
2. You should more clearly state your own sailing experience concerning OFFSHORE sailing experience or credentials. While anyone can skipper a boat and anyone can join a crew, it is much better if the skipper has some experience OFFSHORE sailing prior to making an
ocean crossing (or Bay of Biscay crossing). Frankly speaking here, I think too many people (skippers) tend to hide their inexperience and that is not good for anyone.
3. Asking your crew to pay you to join you on your cruise changes things. It is common for cruisers to see posts where a skipper wants crew to pay for their own food and drink while ashore. Asking crew to pay a daily fee is another thing.
This changes the nature of your voyage (to a "charter"). Asking the crew to also pay for harbor
fees and fuel is another thing too.
My View?
These are expenses I believe YOU as the owner of the boat should pay if you are asking for crew to help you sail your boat.
Asking your crew to pay for insurance, depreciation, and other "boat ownership" costs seems to me to be ridiculous (or outrageous). To quote you:
In addition, a €10 per person per day contribution for insurance, write off, maintenance and repairs is asked in advance.
I would like you (and others) to see this from a different Point of View:
I find it shocking that any skipper would expect their crew to pay for the cost of
ownership of the boat (insurance, depreciation, etc.).
Put another way, if I had a friend who told me he wanted to crew on a voyage across the Atlantic, but the owner of the boat said they expected the crew members to pay for food, fuel, harbor
fees, boat insurance, boat depreciation, maintenance, and repairs too, I would tell my friend the skipper was "crazy" to expect that. To me, it would be a clear sign of a problem or a "red flag." It would indicate to me that the skipper does not have the financial resources to maintain or own the boat without my help (as a paying "crew"). To my view, that changes the entire situation from being "crew" to "paying passenger" and even to "partner."
I am no sea lawyer. But, it is generally known (and has been discussed on this forum many times) that IF a skipper/owner of a boat is getting paid by his crew, it changes the
legal standing of the voyage. There are significant RISKS to this for the skipper/owner. You should research this carefully.
Adding up your fees I come up with a total of €35 PER DAY. To me, that is a lot of
money to charge someone for helping you as crew, while also expecting them to also help you
refit the boat and do boat maintenance AND expecting them to pay for repairs and maintenance to the boat AND insurance etc.
I sincerely hope you find this post helpful. I assure you it is written in a friendly tone of voice and with the sole intent to help you (and others) safely reach their goals as sailors.
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